Bombs found in Wisconsin, Minnesota

LA CROSSE, Wis. -- A seventh homemade pipe bomb was found in a neighboring state Sunday and police said they believed six other bombs found scattered around town were the work of one 'deranged person.'

The seventh pipe bomb, which authorities said was identical to those discovered in La Crosse, was discovered at Stillwater, Minn. - more than 100 miles away.

The seventh pipe bomb was accompanied by a note linking it to the same group believed responsible for the six homemade devices found in La Crosse. Stillwater is about 120 miles north of La Crosse.

Stillwater Police Chief Wally Abrahamson said a man walking along railroad tracks near the Mississippi River noticed a suspicious brushy area and threw a rock at the site. The bomb went off, but the man was not injured.

The bomb had a railroad spike as its booby-trap triggering device.

Abrahamson said a note was found 14 feet away stating that the device was left by the 'North Central Gay Strike Force Against Public and Police Oppression.' Similar notes were found in La Crosse.

The sixth trip-wire shrapnel bomb was found in La Crosse Saturday, less than 24 hours after a utility worker accidently tripped the first one planted outside a church Friday. The worker received minor burns on his leg.

The bombs were in pipes about 6 inches long -- filled with gunpowder, screws, nails, nuts and bolts and triggered by a trip-wire, police said. All six bombs were found in open areas.

'They are meant to inflict harm to people,' said La Crosse Police Chief Williams Reynolds. 'They propel shrapnel and metal objects out of one end.'

Reynolds discounted sloppy, hand-written notes linking the bombs to the 'North Central Gay Strike Force against Public and Police Oppression.' He said he thought the bombs were the work of 'a deranged person.'

'The kind of person we're dealing with is rather spineless, a coward who operates in the dark,' Reynolds said. 'This is his way of publicizing ... a cause, if he has one, which I seriously doubt. Now that the heat is on, these people fade from sight because they're not willing to stand up to face serious issues.'

Reynolds said the notes 'could be a nice ruse. It could be someone against gays ... There's a million possibilities.'

He said authorities expect to find more bombs and are also investigating a possible link with bombs found earlier this month in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls.

'There is something oddball about ours that is also oddball about theirs,' he said.